Clothespin



UNITED STATES DON D. JOHNSTON, OF JASPER, MISSOURI.

CLOTHESPIN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

- Patented Oct. 12,1920.

Application filed Jun-e 21, 1917. Serial No. 176,167.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Don D. JOHNSTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at J asper, in the county of Jasper and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothespins; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to wire clothes pins, and has for its primary object to provide a device of this character which is adapted to fasten the clothes to a clothes line in a manner more secure than can be obtained with the ordinary clothes pin commonly employed.

Referring to the drawings,

Figure l, is a top plan view of the device,

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view thereof,

Fig. 3, is an edge view thereof, and,

Fig. 4, is a view showing the method of using the device.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the device comprises a single piece of wire which is bent intermediate of its ends to form a loop 5.

The clothes pin is formed from a piece of resilient wire that has been twisted into helical form. This piece of wire is then bent upon itself to form a loop 5 and the resultant side members are then .twisted or wrapped one upon the other for slightly less than half their lengths as shown at 6. Beyond the twisted portion 6 which constitutes a tongue for the clothes pin, the side members of the wire are continued curvingly in opposite directions as shown at 7 and are then extended to lie at opposite sides of the portion 6, as shown at 8, with the axes of the portions 8 slightly divergent from the axes of the twisted or intertwined portion 6.

The portion 6 that constitutes the tongue of the clothes pin is thus given an undulatory surface at the sides and upon reference to Fig. 3 of the drawings, it will be noted that a hollow 1O of'the tongue is directly opposlte to bends 10 of the side members 8 that spring away from the tongue in a direct1on at right angles to the plane that includes the axes of the helices of the portions 8.

The result of this arrangement is that when a clothes pin is engaged over a fabric 13 on the clothes line 12, the fabric is pressed into corresponding hollows or concavities of both the tongue and the side members, the helices of the members 8 pressing against the surface of the fabric which hugs tightly part way around them, and thus prevents accidental disengagement of the pin. p

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention provides a clothes pin by means of which articles of clothing or the like may be secured to a clothes line in a very effective manner and at the same time without occasioning any injury to the article which is secured to said line, and by using wire which is of a rust proof nature, it'will be seen that all possibility of damaging the clothes from rust will be eliminated.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed, is:

1. A wire clothes pin consisting of a single resilient wire and comprising spaced legs and an intervening tongue, the legs being each in the form of a single helix and the tongue being in the form of a double helix, one entwining the other.

2. A clothes pin consisting of a single resilient wire which from a point intermediate its ends includes a pair of helices intertwined, the wire extending from the ends of the intertwined portions laterally in opposite directions and then extending in helical form on opposite sides of the intertwined portions and slightly divergent therefrom.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

DON D. JOHNSTON.

Witnesses:

BERT WARD, OMER WEBB. 

